Emory University
Atlanta, Georgia | Admissions Phone: 404-727-6036
E-mail: admission@emory.edu | Website: www.emory.edu
ADMISSION
Admission Rate: 19%
Admission Rate - Men: 20%
Admission Rate - Women: 18%
EA Admission Rate: Not Offered
ED Admission Rate: 26%
Admission Rate (5-Year Trend): -7%
ED Admission Rate (5-Year Trend): N/A
% of Admits Attending (Yield): 28%
Transfer Admission Rate: 25%
# Offered Wait List: 4,983
# Accepted Wait List: 2,660
# Admitted Wait List: 0
SAT Reading/Writing (Middle 50%): 660-730
SAT Math (Middle 50%): 690-790
ACT Composite (Middle 50%): 31-34
Testing Policy: ACT/SAT Required
SAT Superscore: Yes
ACT Superscore: No
% Graduated in Top 10% of HS Class: 84%
% Graduated in Top 25% of HS Class: 98%
% Graduated in Top 50% of HS Class: 100%
ENROLLMENT
Total Undergraduate Enrollment: 7,086
% Part-Time: 1%
% Male: 40%
% Female: 60%
% Out-of-State: 79%
% Fraternity: 28%
% Sorority: 25%
% On-Campus (Freshman): 99%
% On-Campus (All Undergraduate): 63%
% African-American: 8%
% Asian: 21%
% Hispanic: 10%
% White: 39%
% Other: 4%
% Race or Ethnicity Unknown: 1%
% International: 17%
% Low-Income: 19%
ACADEMICS
Student-to-Faculty Ratio: 9:1
% of Classes Under 20: 60%
% of Classes Under 40: 82%
% Full-Time Faculty: 88%
% Full-Time Faculty w/ Terminal Degree: 96%
Top Programs
Biology
Business Administration
Chemistry
English
Film and Media
International Studies
Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology
Philosophy
Retention Rate: 95%
4-Year Graduation Rate: 83%
6-Year Graduation Rate: 90%
Curricular Flexibility: Somewhat Flexible
Academic Rating: 
FINANCIAL
Institutional Type: Private
In-State Tuition: $53,070
Out-of-State Tuition: $53,070
Room & Board: $14,972
Required Fees: $734
Books & Supplies: $1,224
Avg. Need-Based Aid: $44,463
Avg. % of Need Met: 100%
Avg. Merit-Based Aid: $29,911
% Receiving Merit-Based Aid: 22%
Avg. Cumulative Debt: $29,658
% of Students Borrowing: 34%
CAREER
Who Recruits
1. American Express
2. SunTrust
3. Turner Construction
4. Macy’s
5. BNP Paribas
Notable Internships
1. ExxonMobil
2. Booz Allen Hamilton
3. BlackRock
Top Industries
1. Business
2. Healthcare
3. Education
4. Research
5. Social Services
Top Employers
1. Centers for Disease Control
2. Deloitte
3. EY
4. PwC
5. Google
Where Alumni Work
1. Atlanta
2. New York City
3. Washington, DC
4. San Francisco
5. Boston
Median Earnings
College Scorecard (Early Career): $66,000
EOP (Early Career): $67,800
PayScale (Mid-Career): $110,800
RANKINGS
Forbes: 55
Money: 127
U.S. News: 21, National Universities
Wall Street Journal/THE: 22
Washington Monthly: 83, National Universities
Inside the Classroom
Widely viewed as a “Southern Ivy,” Emory University hosts almost 8,000 elite undergraduates on its Atlanta-based campus. To be more geographically precise, the prestigious school, which boasts the sixteenth largest endowment of any university in the United States, is located in the Druid Hills section of Atlanta, home to the Centers for Disease Control as well as one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the entire state of Georgia. This midsize university offers a diverse array of majors (70+) and minors (50+), and more than half of Emory students pursue more than one area of study.
All freshmen must complete a first-year seminar in which they are tasked with stretching their critical thinking and research skills as they explore one of a series of fascinating topics in an intimate setting with a faculty member. The immersion and support don’t stop there; all freshmen also must take a one-credit advising program called PACE (Pre-Major Advising Connections at Emory) in which they work with a faculty advisor and peer mentor to explore academic pathways. Ultimately, the greatest number of students go on to earn degrees in the social sciences (17 percent), business (16 percent), biology (14 percent), mathematics (7 percent), and psychology (5 percent).
One unique feature of Emory is that one of its undergraduate divisions, Oxford College, about forty-five minutes away, functions as a small liberal arts college for freshmen and sophomores. Oxford students knock out many of their lower-level courses before declaring a major and attending upper-level courses at Emory. No matter which school you attend, hands-on learning opportunities abound. A healthy 56 percent of Emory’s student body works directly with a faculty member on academic research. Also noteworthy is the fact that 60 percent of courses have class sizes of under twenty students, a number comparable to many smaller liberal arts colleges.
Emory is notable for its renowned Woodruff School of Nursing and Goizueta School of Business. It also routinely rates well in biology, neuroscience, creative writing, and political science. Undergrads at Emory have a strong history of winning national awards; the school boasted fourteen Fulbright Scholars in 2018-19 alone and has produced twenty Rhodes Scholars in its history. Further, Emory churns out more Teach for America candidates than any other midsize school in the United States, and it is also a leading producer of students who join the Peace Corps upon graduation.
Outside the Classroom
Ninety-nine percent of freshmen and 63 percent of all undergraduates reside in university-owned housing. Many also live in Greek houses as 28 percent of men pledge fraternities and 25 percent of women join sororities. Emory claims over 550 student-run clubs and sports teams, and Oxford College adds another eighty to that diverse list. Volunteer Emory organizes twenty to thirty service trips per week, and over 80 percent of students participate in one or more of the opportunities for community service each year. If you are looking for top-of-the-line collegiate athletics, Emory may not be a great fit. Despite the absence of nationally televised football games, roughly 400 non-scholarship athletes compete in a variety of Division III athletic competitions. Another 600+ students compete in one or more of Emory’s club sports, which include everything from flag football to golf to swimming. Impressive amenities, such as two Olympic-size swimming pools and a rock climbing arena, also are available for recreational use. Notable campus-wide events include Wonderful Wednesdays, a weekly open-invite celebration that can include anything from a petting zoo to a volunteer fair and an annual town hall with former President Jimmy Carter. Off campus there is something for everyone with Atlanta’s nightlife and natural beauty (a nature trail begins on Oxford’s campus) right in your backyard.
Career Services
The Career Center at Emory is staffed by thirteen full-time professional employees as well as four additional full-time staff members who exclusively serve business majors at Goizueta. That equates to a student-to-advisor ratio of 417:1, slightly below average compared to the other institutions included in this book. Spring and fall job fairs are well attended (over 1,000 students each), and approximately 200 companies recruit on campus each year. Each year, more than 12,000 jobs and internships are posted on Handshake, 350+ events are held, and 1,500 one-on-one counseling sessions take place.
Typical career-prep services are available to undergraduate students. Resumes, cover letters, and personal statements can be submitted online for editing by a staff member with fairly quick turnaround times. High Five networking events are held at least once a year for ten career categories including legal, data science, green, STEM, and government and public policy. A full slate of guests, many of whom are Emory alums, discuss their careers with undergraduate attendees. At any time, students can access alumni as well as internship opportunities through their Handshake account. Emory Connects: Career Discovery Days provides students with job-shadowing opportunities in the Atlanta area.
Professional Outcomes
Within three months of graduation 43 percent of Emory grads are already employed, and 92 percent have arrived at their next destination. The top ten employers of Emory’s Class of 2018 include Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Google, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, and Accenture. Past graduating classes have had a significant numbers of Eagles (the schools lesser-known mascot) land at Deloitte, PwC, the Home Depot, Facebook, and the Coca-Cola Company. Teach for America is the largest employer of the previous three graduating classes. While a healthy number of Emory grads found employment in Georgia, the top destinations for the Class of 2018 included non-Southern locales New York City, DC, LA, Chicago, and Philadelphia. Graduates of the Goizueta Business School found strong starting salaries with the majority going into either finance (median salary: $80k) or consulting (median salary: $69k). Eighty-eight percent of graduates from the Woodruff School of Nursing found employment within three months at an average salary of $53k. The median salary across all schools in 2018 was $60k.
A healthy number of Emory grads pursue further education upon graduation. Last year, more than ten Emory grads/alums received acceptance letters from the following top law schools: Columbia, Berkeley, Michigan, Northwestern, and Georgetown. Every one of the forty-three seniors who applied directly to law school received at least one acceptance. Med school acceptances included Duke, Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt, and USC. Overall, the most commonly attended graduate schools included Emory itself, Columbia, Duke, University of Chicago, NYU, Penn, Harvard, and Stanford.
Admission
Emory received a record number of applications in 2018—27,559; only 5,104 were accepted, an overall acceptance rate of 18.5 percent, down from a 25 percent acceptance rate only two years ago and a 22 percent clip in 2017. Admitted students out of the 2018 applicant pool had a median SAT score of 1500 or above.
That means half of those accepted into Emory’s Class of 2022 scored in the 99th percentile nationally on standardized tests. Among those who went on to enroll, the mid-50 percent ranges were 1350-1420 on the SAT and 31-34 on the ACT. The average GPA on a 4.0 scale was 3.78, and few students possessed a GPA under a 3.5.
While high test scores and near-perfect grades (83 percent were in the top 10 percent of their high school classes) are close to prerequisites, Emory does employ a holistic review process that carefully considers letters of recommendations, essays, and how you spent your time outside the classroom. It is a fairly common strategy for students to submit applications to both Emory and Oxford. The latter is slightly less selective with a 19.8 acceptance rate (vs. a 15.6 acceptance rates at Emory College). It is also important to note that 49 percent of first-year students at Emory were admitted through early decision, and the ED acceptance rate was eight points higher than the regular round rate. Thus, if Emory is your first choice, applying early may be a good idea. In sum, Emory is a highly selective, elite school where competition for a spot-on campus is growing more difficult every year. Nothing short of straight A’s in a rigorous selection of courses, along with a 1500+ SAT score, puts you in good standing to earn a place in one of the South’s most prestigious universities.
Worth Your Money?
Almost all Emory students who qualify for financial aid see 100 percent of their demonstrated need met by the university. That translates to 48 percent of the undergraduate student body receiving an average grant of $44,463 per year. In addition, 22 percent of students are given a merit award of almost $30k, which means few students pay the full $71,588 annual cost of attendance. Emory does a tremendous job of opening its doors to students from every socioeconomic background as the median family income for current students (estimated by tax return data) is much lower than many other private institutions of its ilk. Given that grads enjoy top-shelf employment prospects and generous financial aid, Emory is likely to be worth every dollar it will cost you.